One of the people who has been at Benilde-St. Margaret’s longest is Mary Fran O’Keefe. She has spent the last 46 years of her life at BSM working with the student council to the alumni. She is known by her colleagues as one who embodies the Red Knight spirit.

Those who have worked with O’Keefe for many years recognize her as an important member of the BSM community. “It’s impossible to put into words the impact that Ms. O’Keefe has had here at school…I see Ms. O’Keefe as being an infinite resource [for] everything [at] Benilde- St.Margaret’s. She is behind so many beautiful programs that are done here for the students and for parents and for alumni. She attends every possible sporting event and activity, and basically, it all stems from her love of the kids in this school. She’s given her life to this place, which we should be forever grateful for…Her dedication, her commitment to the school and to the many people in the past, present, and future is just incredible,” Campus Minister Mike Jeremiah said.

Throughout her years working here, O’Keefe has had varying roles. However, she has always been involved in the BSM community in some shape or form. “I started as a librarian. Then I moved to be a development person and now I’m the director of alumni and community events,” O’Keefe said.

Although dabbling in teaching in her previous job, O’Keefe decided to come to BSM to pursue another avenue of education. “I was a librarian at a school in Fort Dodge Iowa, and then they had a religious sister who came to be the librarian. So I taught social studies for a year, and…I wasn’t gonna do that. So I had two job offers one at St. Mary’s College in Winona and one up here, so I chose this one,” O’Keef said.

From the start of O’Keefe’s career at BSM to now, there have been a lot of changes made in scheduling and parent involvement. “When I first started here, we had modular scheduling and regular scheduling. Then we went to normal scheduling…. But I would say maybe the biggest change is in the parents and not the kids. I think the parents now are more involved,” O’Keef said.

O’Keefe noted that moving from Iowa to Minneapolis was a significant change. However, the role at BSM and the larger city environment enticed her. “[I moved] because there was a library opening obviously…I grew up in Northern Iowa, so we came to Minneapolis a lot for shopping and other things. So [I thought] let’s move to a bigger city,” O’Keef said.

Having worked at BSM for so many years, O’Keefe has created long-lasting relationships with alumni. Additionally, O’Keefe has expressed many fond memories of BSM in her years working at the school. “I have wonderful and very fun memories from my many years as the student council adviser. There are some great times and great stories. I still keep in touch with many of those students (and others) and their families. There are several adults on staff who were part of student council in their day: Peter Schubloom, Erin Offerdahl, Meghan DesLauriers, Rachel Olson, Jake Mahler, Betsy Van Cleve. And of course, I love still seeing all of the other alums on staff who were students when I was here,” O’Keefe said in an email interview.